


Shark's Teeth

by smug_albatross



Category: The Brotherband Chronicles - John Flanagan
Genre: Angst, Attempted Murder, Background characters - Freeform, Character Study, F/M, Found Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Tursgud is a horrible person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 16:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19429708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smug_albatross/pseuds/smug_albatross
Summary: (running through the empty streets, night sky, foreign languages, getting lost, laughing with a stranger, fire escape, anonymous messages)The Sharks chart their own fate.





	Shark's Teeth

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post](https://brotherbandchronicles.tumblr.com/post/185917767062/the-brotherbands-aesthetic) by brotherbandchronicles on tumblr.

**Tursgud** is loud, domineering, callous - he wants what he wants and the rest of them have to go along with it. But training doesn't last forever and the only thing worse than no brotherband is a cruel brotherband. So he finds himself alone, surrounded by cutthroats and sycophants. He tells himself that this is what success is, but then he sees Hal Mikkelson laughing with his crew and jealousy seizes his heart.

 **Knut** is not a good man, but he is a smart one - he understands the value of cooperation and goodwill in a crew. He keeps Tursgud's worst impulses in check. He is his own man, more or less - with his own hopes and dreams, his own code - but Tursgud's demands are a force more crushing than the ocean depth, and whatever he is, it's being lost to the dark hull of the _Nightwolf_ and the dark and bleeding jewel that hides in her heart.

 **Karl** is the one with the ideas, quick-witted and sarcastic. Tursgud never really liked him, but their mothers were sisters so they're expected to get along. The facade crumbles when Tursgud leaves the Wolves to sink - leading to a roaring shouting match between them that cracks the brotherband in half - Tursgud, Knut, Ennit, Pedra, and Vott on one side; Karl, Orlyg, Ragi, Gunni, and Gils on the other. They stitch themselves back together long enough to finish the competitions, but nobody sleeps soundly - they're too busy waiting for a knife in their ribs or a pair of hands around their throat.

When training is over, Karl and his side toss Tursgud aside in disgust. They can't just abandon the others, though (Tursgud is a _force_ \- escaping it isn't a simple matter of walking away). He finds work - he's an average seaman, but a good blacksmith, and he makes a good apprentice. He offers a soot-stained hand to the others - to anyone who finds themselves on Tursgud's crew. Vott is the first, then Pedra - well, sort of - then some of Tursgud's hires: Balki, Hedin, Mord. Soon enough, he has a little crew of his own.

 **Ennit** was never kind. He grew up too close to Tursgud for that, but Pedra has always been his - well, Tursgud called it weakness, but what does Tursgud know of love? Still, he would never raise his voice or his hand to Pedra (Pedra is too good for Ennit - even if the very idea of hurting Pedra didn't sent spiders crawling up Ennit's spine, he'd never risk what they have).

So when he convinces his fiance to take one last voyage with Tursgud, he honestly believes it will turn out all right. They just need one more man - Tursgud pays well, even if he's unpleasant, and then they can find honest work. But the shadows under Pedra's eye take their toll on Ennit, and the slithering bleeding _thing_ in the _Nightwolf_ 's hold talks him into a noose that dangles from the Nightwolf's mast.

He never makes it to Soccorro.

 **Pedra** is sweet and gentle, always ready to offer a helping hand - too ready. When Knut drops by Ennit's place, asking for another couple hands for a voyage, Pedra doesn't protest when Ennit signs on - doesn't even protest when Ennit asks him to follow.

The voyage is a terrible idea, but with Ennit there it's bearable. Then Ennit dies, and it's not really bearable anymore - but he bears it all the same, because there isn't another option. He has a younger brother, a twin, an older sister - in a month or so, he'll have a niece or a nephew that he's never met. So he hangs on, sometimes by his fingernails. He does his best for the people that Tursgud takes captive, but he's too afraid to free them. He brings them food and water and tends to their injuries as best he can (he's a healer, but not a well-trained one) - but he can't give them freedom. He wants to, but if he does then he'll be stuck on this ship and Tursgud will know (and Knut will know, and somehow that's worse) - and then he'll be dead, or sold off himself.

He's not selfless. He's not a hero. He just wants to go home with as little blood on his hands as possible.

 **Orlyg** is Pedra's twin and everything Pedra isn't - brash, loud, and aggressive, dark-haired and broad against Pedra's sharp, pale features. Their father is a Toscan merchant who fell in love with a Skandian skirl - Oddney, the axe-wielding beauty of Hallasholm. It's an old tale, now, but Orlyg has his father's oval face and dark skin. Karl was his first friend, and once Karl is dragged into the Sharks, Orlyg passes up Rollond's invitation into the wolves to stick with his friend. When Tursgud decides that attacking the Herons is a good idea, he sends Pedra to the Wolves with a warning.

When Karl and Tursgud nearly rip each other to shreds, Orlyg is there, ready to snap the neck of the first man to go for his axe. When training is over, he and Ragi find work on a fishing boat while Pedra and Ennit scrape by on what Ennit can steal. He tries to provide for his brother, but money is tight and Pedra - well, Pedra doesn't think he deserves the help and Ennit is too proud to accept it. He wants to scream, but instead he brings them 'round to eat as often as he can.

Then Pedra and Ennit sign on with Tursgud ("just one voyage") and there's nothing Orlyg can do but cry as they sail away.

 **Ragi** has narrow mean streak that runs nearly as deep as Tursgud's. He's a holder of grudges, slow to anger and slower to forget, and Tursgud's willingness to let the Wolves sink cut deep. His parents were lost at sea when he was a young boy - Orlyg and Pedra are the closest thing he has to a family. The idea that someone could have watched his parents die and done nothing? Is intolerable. He doesn't shout or roar or even raise his voice - he sits back, he bides his time, he plans. He _waits_ \- and when Karl approaches him for help getting Vott off the Nightwolf's crew roster, well. He plans it down to the letter.

Karl might be a master of thinking on his feet, but Ragi is always two moves ahead. Tursgud is furious, but with no paper contract and Ragi's blackmail dangling over his head, there's not much he can do, especially with Vott sleeping on Orlyg's floor. Pedra and Ennit are next - Pedra is blood-family to Orlyg, so it's easier, but Ennit is tricky because relationships don't legally count until you're married (even though Ennit proposed last week). Ragi wins, in the end, but Tursgud is petty and smears what's left of their reputation up and down the docks. Pedra only barely manages to cling to his apprenticeship in the healing halls, and Ennit turns to thievery to make ends meet. Neither of them will accept help, despite Karl and Orlyg's (loud) insistence on helping.

Ragi has Ennit steal some things, sometimes, and pays him for his troubles. Then again, Ragi doesn't have much money either - none of them do. There's a woman named Frida who can get them less scrupulous jobs - it's something, but it's not would Ragi would call _ideal._

"You should be a lawyer," Ennit jokes one night, after listening to Ragi complain at length about something or other. Ragi, who is actually considering it, doesn't laugh.

Then Pedra and Ennit slide backwards into the maelstrom of Tursgud's demands and leave Orlyg standing on the docks with a tear-stained face. Ragi puts an arm around his shoulders. "We'll get them back," he says. "You know we will."

(They don't come back. None of them do. Resentment churns in Ragi's gut - Pedra and Ennit didn't deserve to die, to drown - but when the son of a former slave kills a slaver...)

(He's not sorry the _Nightwolf_ sank. He's just sorry that his friends were on board when it did.)

 **Vott** is a violent man, always looking for a fight - with a dead mother and a violent drunk for a father, the heat of a battle is the only place Vott has ever felt in control of his life. So when Tursgud promises him all the fights he wants, he doesn’t think twice about falling in with his crew.

Knut is all right. He likes Karl - really likes him, but it’s hard to tell if Karl likes him back. Orlyg is good in a brawl. Ragi, though - Vott doesn’t trust Ragi as far as he could throw the man, and he’s eager to find out how far that is. He doesn’t really have an opinion on the others (keeps to himself too much for that) so when Tursgud and Karl go for each other’s throats, Vott just swings at whoever’s closest. It happens, much to his delight, to be Ragi.

Tursgud gets the _Nightwolf_ and Vott rolls his eyes a bit because _of course_ Tursgud’s father bought it for him, but it’s a good ship and they have a couple short voyages that go well. Then he finds himself terrorizing a baker because Tursgud promised him a fight, and suddenly several things fall into place. One - this isn’t a fight. Two - Tursgud is a bitch. Three - he hasn’t spoken to anyone but Tursgud and Knut in three weeks. That’s probably not healthy.

So Vott tries to leave the crew and ends up with a broken nose and a lot of blood pouring out of places blood shouldn’t be pouring out of. Karl finds him before Tursgud can finish him off and drags him back to Gils’s place. Blood loss loosens his tongue and Vott finds out (much to his embarrassment) that Karl doesn’t like _anyone_ the way that Vott likes him. He deals with this by getting roaring drunk as soon as possible and dragging Orlyg with him when the shorter man comes to find him.

To his surprise, Ragi is the one that drags them back home and bullies Gunni into making a hangover cure. Maybe, he thinks, Ragi isn’t so bad. Maybe he’s worth liking.

 **Gunni** is a thin, small man with a ferret-ish face and a snappy disposition. He sticks to Gils because Gils is familiar and trustworthy (and has a spare corner for him to sleep) and trades trinkets with Jesper for a few extra coins. He doesn’t like Tursgud, never has, but Rollond doesn’t like him so that doesn’t leave him with anywhere else to go, really.

He spends a lot of time looking over at the Herons during training, wondering what their camp is like, if they laugh or snap and snarl. Hal seems...kind. Soft, maybe, but kind. Then the Andomal gets stolen and Gunni tosses all his half-assed plans out the window. Then the Herons come _back_ and it’s entirely too late.

He sticks with Gils, makes friends with the irreverent Frida who invites herself into the house and makes no plans to leave. She’s not Gunni’s type, but she has a few friends who are and they have fun together for a bit before going their separate ways.

Pedra and Ennit come back for a while. That’s all right - Gunni always liked Ennit’s bite and Pedra can stitch up a stab wound in under a minute. They leave again and Gunni is a little surprised to be sorry to see them go. Feelings - any feelings - were never really Gunni’s strong suit.

Vott shows up and stays. Gunni outright cackles when Ragi takes an interest, then howls when he realizes the interest is mutual. They’re the least demonstrative couple in Hallasholm and Gunni takes every opportunity to tease them about it.

Then Gils has a _meeting,_ one of the types that keeps the Sharks moneyed but not in the law-abiding way, and Gunni and Jesper nearly end up knifing each other before they realize it’s not an ambush.

 **Gils** is affectionately known as the ‘normal one’ - the one with two parents and a younger sibling and a dog. In reality, he’s the one with a house that’s almost always empty and more beds than ever get used. He’s safety and security, a fallback plan, an ace in the hole - respectable, reliable, forgettable. He doesn’t mind it, actually. The anonymity is nice and he’s never been the adventuring type. He has a younger sibling to take care of (Aegan is fourteen and they’re already everything he isn’t - brash and loud and determined to make their mark on the world) and a household to manage without bruising his parents’ inconstant egos.

Karl is the face, Ragi is the brains, Gils is the backbone. It’s good work, if not always honest - and it brings Frida Toresdottir - brown-haired and green-eyed, Skandian to the bone but a troublemaker and a linguist at heart - to his door in the dark of night, Toscan curses on her tongue and a note from Ragi clutched in her hand.

There’s a fire. Karl’s in trouble. Gils doesn’t need to know any more and rushes after her.

She becomes a fixture of sorts after that, slipping messages under doors and arranging meetings with the right people and the right times (look, all this rescuing doesn’t fund itself and none of them are paid that well - Ragi was _born_ knowing everyone but Frida’s the one with her foot in the door). She and Orlyg talk at a million miles an hour in Toscan and the rest of them pick it up in self-defense until the only one who can’t keep up is Karl, who is hopeless at anything south of the Stormwhite Sea.

One night, Frida turns up on his doorstep clutching her stomach with bloody fingers. “No healers,” she gasps out, before falling to the floor in a dead faint.

No healers. Fine. Gils works fast, calls Gunni out from whatever corner he’s sleeping in and together they manage to keep her from bleeding out. She stays for a day, then a week, then a month. She’s a fixture in the house by that point. She and Aegan get along well enough to give Gils a heart attack.

The _Nightwolf_ sinks, taking four people he knew with it. Gils mourns for Ennit and Pedra quietly; There are dreams - flashes of a one-winged woman with half a face, of dark water and cracking timber. Frida hangs around more often after that, filling her pockets with sweets and snacks that she leaves on his desk when he isn’t looking. Time passes in fits and starts, until one day he looks up and realizes that it’s been quite a while and maybe he should go outside for something that isn’t market day.

Karl and Gunni drag him out for drinks one night. Gils isn’t a heavy drinker, but the companionship is warm and refreshing and they make it a regular thing. Sometimes Orlyg and Vott join them - occasionally Vott will even drag Ragi along, and isn’t _that_ a shock - but usually it’s just the three of them, with Frida’s droll commentary fading in and out of his ears for most of the night.

It’s nice, having friends.

There’s a storm. The _Heron_ survives, to everyone’s surprise but Ragi’s (Ragi is probably the only one who’s never underestimated the Heron brotherband). The Maktig competitions come and go - Vott makes a good show of it, but his swordsmanship isn’t great and he gets knocked out on the second round. Frida laughs at him and teaches him how to reverse his grip in a knife fight to make up for it.

That night, she leaves a silver trinket on Gils's desk and a kiss on his cheek.

Then things start to go wrong, the way that things go wrong in hearsay and superstitious gossip - the way things go wrong in Hallasholm’s underbelly when nobody is paying enough attention. Frida arranges a meeting with someone - Gils nearly has a heart attack when he realizes it’s Jesper.

Apparently, the ex-thief wasn’t as reformed as he’d thought.

Still. There’s protocols for things like this. “I need a favor,” Gils says.

Jesper narrows his eyes. “What’s the favor?”

In stories, dreams are important. “I need to know everything about the sinking of the _Nightwolf.”_


End file.
